Alec B
The Monkees weren't much more than a quartet of goofball musicians and singers, but that kind of low stakes energy is what makes the stream of consciousness, dreamlike narrative enormously fun.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/05/24
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Dave S
Before collaborating on Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens in the early ‘70s, Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson worked together on the inexplicably bad Head, a truly horrible mishmash of often psychedelic vignettes starring The Monkees, probably the least psychedelic personalities of the time period. There is no plot to speak of, the acting is uniformly bad, none of the segments are the least bit funny or interesting, the editing is annoying at best, and the movie studiously avoids any hit songs by The Monkees. The ONLY reason to watch is to look for cameos by a disparate group of celebrities, including the likes of Frank Zappa, Annette Funicello, Sonny Liston, Victor Mature, and Teri Garr, among others. It's hard to imagine anyone liking this, with the possible exception of die-hard fans of The Monkees.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
11/20/23
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Tabitha B
Ummmmm lol. This a Monkees movie lol
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
11/11/23
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Joanne R
I think certainly something you can appreciate more as you get older. If you are looking for a longer version of the TV show then you are going to be disappointed, however, looking at it as an experimental late 1960s film I think it is one of the best. From dancing in a vacuum cleaner to being literally ripped apart from fans and (spoiler alert) committing suicide at the end there is never a dull moment. While the music is a departure from their bubble gum pop days and has an edge to it, it is enjoyable and the dreamlike "As we go along" is very relaxing
In conclusion, enjoy a trip back to the 1960s in every sense
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
08/21/22
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Audience Member
I watched this back to back with Easy Rider this week. Both are iconic films, but both are also problematic. This one fares a little better, I think, because the comedic elements are pretty successful throughout. But there's very little to tie together the disparate scenes and situations. Still, the Monkees have a great screen presence and very fun sense of humor in addition to be pretty decent musicians.
Easy Rider captures the strange mentality adopted from Kerouac and the Beat generation where you don't ever talk directly to your conversation partner. Instead, you make dramatic pronouncements which only serve to confuse the situation. A perfect example of this is the Peter Fonda character insisting that "We blew it" in response to the Dennis Hopper character's assertion that they are now rich and can retire.
I love the Jack Nicholson character. He's street savvy in a small town sort of way, and he understands the necessity of recognizing one's limits. The Dennis Hopper character, too, is very likeable. He reminds me of some crazy friends I've had over the years who maintain an exuberance surrounding life that often seems a little naive.
I don't care for the Peter Fonda character, but I have to say that Fonda plays the part well. He's the overly confident jerk who thinks he's the thoughtful one but is really just moody and morose. And, somehow, as in real life, certain people gravitate toward this obnoxiousness.
I think Easy Rider could have benefitted from less pomp and posturing and more fun and adventure. The Mardi Gras scenes could have been expanded while the scenes with obnoxious locals could have been reined in a bit.
Also, why do they have to die in the end? What is accomplished by that? To show how evil and obnoxious Southerners were? I think it's enough that Nicholson's character died. The movie would have come off better if it hadn't tried to portray 1960s America in such a bleak fashion.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Having grown up seeing the TV show and listening to their music, I was naturally expecting more of the same. Instead, I got a bunch of random weirdness that I turned off after fifteen minutes. What was the point of the whole thing? The 1960's movies made by the Beatles were fun romps, and Pink Floyd's "The Wall", though I didn't much like it, at least had a story (about the musician character Pink). But this was just one random scene after another. A politician flubs his speech at a bridge dedication, we see the Monkees being mobbed by screaming fans-and then they are suddenly mannequins, the Monkees are suddenly soldiers, and then Mickey is in the desert trying to get coke out a vending machine, and then he's beside a pink Sherman tank (probably the type used by the British in North Africa), a bunch of Arabic-type people climb out of it and surrender to Mickey, then Mickey uses the tank's cannon to blow up the vending machine. I decided not to bother with the rest.
The Monkees's TV show was funny, and it had social commentary, sometimes scathing, and though the band may have been prepackaged, their music was still good. This movie was just random disconnected scenes and inferior music, hardly even funny, and it was a total box office flop which would lead to the demise of the professional relationships between those involved. Stick to the TV show and to the music; those are good.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
Full Review
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